Virginia Law

In lieu of obtaining a CTC and CTO for each sewage collection project, an owner may elect to obtain approval for a master plan and subsequent local review for connections to, or extensions of, existing sewerage systems. The area engineer will provide technical review support for review of such requests. The following procedure for obtaining the approval for local review shall be used:

1. Local plans and specifications. The owner shall develop, adopt, and request approval of general local specifications and plan details covering sewage collection design and construction. For local government or owner approvals, the sewerage system owner must provide for preparation and evaluation of design documents either within the appropriate local government agency, or by separate professional entities or firms, and submit a formal description of such arrangements to the area engineer for evaluation and approval by the director.

2. Master plan. The owner shall develop a plan which outlines the following system specific requirements and the owner's method of compliance with such requirements:

a. Design criteria and construction specifications used by the owner,

b. Evidence that personnel with the training and experience necessary to ensure compliance with the program requirements are employed by the owner,

c. Location of interceptors and force mains, with design flows, for each designated service area within the collection systems conveying flow to the treatment works, and

d. A certificate method for certifying that sewerage system projects meet the requirements of these regulations, and that the project is in compliance with the master plan and local standards and specifications approved by the director.

The local owner approval certificate should describe the project to be constructed in accordance with bid documents and provide for the identification, position and signature of the local official responsible for project oversight.

3. Extensions. Sewer line extensions shall not be undertaken if such construction results in an increase in the number of equivalent residential connections (total flow divided by the product of 100 gpd times the service population), unless the receiving sewerage system and treatment works have been issued a final CTO in accordance with this chapter verifying that there is adequate capacity to handle the project design flows.

4. Sewerage systems covered by this section will not be issued separate CTOs unless special operation requirements dictate a need for permit issuance.